Random thought-snippets:
Sep. 1st, 2011 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mni1) How is it that I can enjoy a television show like Bones even when I'm cringing about five times per episode due to ableist dialog, and really stupid stereotypes about politics and nationality? After each hour, I find myself wanting to apologize to... me
J) There's this Lipton Ice Tea commercial that's been airing, lately, with a woman singer-voice-over singing a mock "Inspirational Ballad Hook" (It's just one line, and except for the final spoken tag line, it's the only language in the whole spot, which makes me think it was written just for this ad, and not a borrowed line from an actual complete song). The line is: "I ... Belong ... to all ... That I've... Been Through!"
And it wouldn't bother me so much if the music and singing and visuals that go with it weren't written well. But they were well-written.
So that line gets stuck in my head for the whole day. And it drives me up the proverbial wall, because it's backwards. That's the opposite of inspirational. That means that we are owned and controlled by our past, that we have no power to redefine who we are.
But the individual words in that line probably got pinged by some focus group as "feel good words," and so they were written into the lyric, regardless of what the whole sentence means. This is what gives the Advertising Industry its creepy reputation, boys and girls.
7) Speaking of industry, every time I hear on the news, that the "new home construction" statistics for each month indicates the current health of our economy, I can't help but think we need to find a new foundation for our economy. That can't be sustainable, can it? Every new home built needs to have more land cleared to build on, so that our suburbs keep sprawling, and more highways get built, and more cars get driven, and more petroleum-based fuel gets depended on... and... Really?! That system is the best indicator of a healthy economy in this day and age?
I mean, I understand that when America was starting out, and the various governmental systems were working out the kinks on the way to our current Constitution, having political power meant owning your own land and the home you built on it. So the idea that the more citizens owned their own homes (rather than renting or squatting) the greater personal stake they'd have in making sure the government kept going, and they'd be less likely to start their own revolutions. ...At least, that was the theory (and that's why home mortgage payments are tax-deductible). But isn't it time we moved on to some other measure?
I mean, I'm no economist, Jim. I'm just a former English major. I'm just saying.
b) Speaking of "Bones" (Hey, I warned you this would be random!), I'm wondering if "procedurals" (whether police or medical-based) are especially prone to ableist nonsense in their scripts and long story arcs, because the sellers-of-advertising in these shows depend on promising a loyal audience who's hooked quickly and consistently, even when they've missed the first four episodes of the season, and the first twenty minutes of this particular episode. And What's the cheapest way to do that (in terms of cognitive capital and time, at least)? Pit the Normals as the good guys against the Abnormals as the bad guys. 'Cause that way, you don't have to waste any time explaining or exploring an unfamiliar idea...
You know what genre of TV I miss most? Variety comedy shows, like "Laugh-in" and "The Carol Burnett Show" and the Flip Wilson show (IIRC, it was just called "Flip").
~) Part of me wants to adapt Kant's "Second formulation" of the Categorical Imperative into a tee-shirt. But I'm not sure it's possible to convert formal 17th C., translated-from-German, philosophical language into a pithy, snarky, tee-shirt saying. That second formulation goes like this:
(Quote) "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end." (unquote)
I like it because it does acknowledge that we are "means" to each other (and ourselves) -- that human do rely on the help of others to accomplish what we cannot do alone. But it says we must Also accept that simply being the best human we can be is a worthy goal in its own right -- and it makes the point that you are not being a good or moral person if you lie down and play doormat.
J) There's this Lipton Ice Tea commercial that's been airing, lately, with a woman singer-voice-over singing a mock "Inspirational Ballad Hook" (It's just one line, and except for the final spoken tag line, it's the only language in the whole spot, which makes me think it was written just for this ad, and not a borrowed line from an actual complete song). The line is: "I ... Belong ... to all ... That I've... Been Through!"
And it wouldn't bother me so much if the music and singing and visuals that go with it weren't written well. But they were well-written.
So that line gets stuck in my head for the whole day. And it drives me up the proverbial wall, because it's backwards. That's the opposite of inspirational. That means that we are owned and controlled by our past, that we have no power to redefine who we are.
But the individual words in that line probably got pinged by some focus group as "feel good words," and so they were written into the lyric, regardless of what the whole sentence means. This is what gives the Advertising Industry its creepy reputation, boys and girls.
7) Speaking of industry, every time I hear on the news, that the "new home construction" statistics for each month indicates the current health of our economy, I can't help but think we need to find a new foundation for our economy. That can't be sustainable, can it? Every new home built needs to have more land cleared to build on, so that our suburbs keep sprawling, and more highways get built, and more cars get driven, and more petroleum-based fuel gets depended on... and... Really?! That system is the best indicator of a healthy economy in this day and age?
I mean, I understand that when America was starting out, and the various governmental systems were working out the kinks on the way to our current Constitution, having political power meant owning your own land and the home you built on it. So the idea that the more citizens owned their own homes (rather than renting or squatting) the greater personal stake they'd have in making sure the government kept going, and they'd be less likely to start their own revolutions. ...At least, that was the theory (and that's why home mortgage payments are tax-deductible). But isn't it time we moved on to some other measure?
I mean, I'm no economist, Jim. I'm just a former English major. I'm just saying.
b) Speaking of "Bones" (Hey, I warned you this would be random!), I'm wondering if "procedurals" (whether police or medical-based) are especially prone to ableist nonsense in their scripts and long story arcs, because the sellers-of-advertising in these shows depend on promising a loyal audience who's hooked quickly and consistently, even when they've missed the first four episodes of the season, and the first twenty minutes of this particular episode. And What's the cheapest way to do that (in terms of cognitive capital and time, at least)? Pit the Normals as the good guys against the Abnormals as the bad guys. 'Cause that way, you don't have to waste any time explaining or exploring an unfamiliar idea...
You know what genre of TV I miss most? Variety comedy shows, like "Laugh-in" and "The Carol Burnett Show" and the Flip Wilson show (IIRC, it was just called "Flip").
~) Part of me wants to adapt Kant's "Second formulation" of the Categorical Imperative into a tee-shirt. But I'm not sure it's possible to convert formal 17th C., translated-from-German, philosophical language into a pithy, snarky, tee-shirt saying. That second formulation goes like this:
(Quote) "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end." (unquote)
I like it because it does acknowledge that we are "means" to each other (and ourselves) -- that human do rely on the help of others to accomplish what we cannot do alone. But it says we must Also accept that simply being the best human we can be is a worthy goal in its own right -- and it makes the point that you are not being a good or moral person if you lie down and play doormat.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-03 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-03 07:21 pm (UTC)That seems like a very round number. How about $126.17?
Seriously, though. I love Kant. Well, except for his (and other 'natural Rights' philosophers of the 18th-19th centuries) insistence that rights are only due to 'Rational beings,' which would make it easier to deny the rights of the mentally ill and cognitively disabled -- especially if those at the top of the pecking order are the ones to set the parameters of what's rational and what's not.
The answer to that, though, is not to reject his ideas, but to respond with: "Yes, and..."